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| My two favorite guys! Chunk & Godot. |
Mary J. Lai is an animator and illustrator with an MFA from UCLA's Animation program. Raised the majority of her life in Los Angeles, she spent her latter years in Northern California. She received a BA in Art from UC Santa Cruz, and a certification in Science Illustration. She continued her education in animation at UCLA, and is currently self-employed, which translates to working on freelance projects as they come down the pipeline, personal art projects and pottery, as well as studio work in Portland, OR. She has a fondness for birds, which are a frequent subject in her work and cause of quite a few shenanigans in her life. Her achievements include receiving the Matt Groening Initiative award for her thesis film
Velo Hoot (in addition to Best of the NorthWest Animation Film Fest), featured filmmaker for
UCLA's Film & TV's Director's Spotlight for her second year film
dream(drem)n., and multiple donor awards. Her favorite mediums include ink, watercolor and clay. She currently resides in Portlandia with her canary Benedict, her baby girl Phoebe, a crystal red shrimp tank, and engineer husband.
Q: Why Birdzilla Studios?
A: As an independent artist, I'm lucky to have the ability to put on many hats from animation to directing, to sculpting and pottery, to storyboards and creating art assets (that are animation friendly: very important!), hence the plural 'studios'. In addition, quite a few of the projects I've worked on I would bring on colleagues to collaborate with on the project. Our strengths combined has created some awesome work. It's been a pleasure working with every single one of my animation family!
If you have any comments, questions, or projects requiring my skillset, please don't hesitate to send an email!
buzzbirdzilla [at]
